Me? Human? : Chapter 4 : A sobering realistion, a Stern sentence & Tempting Murphy?

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Kuoh Academy, Japan

–Motohama Kenji–

He was restless for the first two classes, the image of Rias Gremory seemingly lasered into his mind as the tendencies of Motohoma reared their ugly heads, forcing his mind away from what was taught in the class to the few seconds of meeting with Rias Gremory, one of the two most desirable girls in the school.

Thankfully, she was a year older than they were. He couldn’t even imagine what would have happened had she been in the same year as the Perverted Trio. He wagered that she would have found their antics a little amusing at first and then, once they inevitably tried to cross a few lines, they would find themselves under the influence of some spells.

Failing that, they might just have fallen victim to some incidents that took them off the board entirely. Hell, she could just as easily expel them from the school, forcing them to pack up their bags and move to any school that would take them. After all, she was the owner of the entire territory. She could just as easily expel them from the entire town as well, and she would be well within her rights.

The fact that she could do all of this without making any significant effort sobered him right up. Yes, she was sex on legs. Yes, she might as well be the embodiment of beauty. Yes, her being a Devil only added to her appeal.

But he couldn’t let himself be led astray by his lower half. No, he had to be pragmatic about this, else he might find himself with a Power of Destruction Ball in his face before he even had the time to ramp up with his abilities.

Which is why he immediately moved on to the most important topic at hand. His powers. Absolute Adaptive Regeneration should cover most stuff, he imagined. Now, all he had to do was figure out the mechanics of it. Last night, it worked out for him without any issues. He’d gotten his eyes repaired, but to make sure no issues occurred, he’d put them on once again in the morning.

Things were blurry for a few seconds before he felt his powers kick in, and as if someone was adjusting the focus on a camera, his vision blurred before righting itself. The glasses didn’t even annoy him all that much. In fact, it was as if he was missing something when he was looking at everything clearly without his glasses. Every time he turned on his bed last night, his hand reached to his face to remove or adjust his glasses, only to realise he had no glasses on his face.

Still, it was a flaw, something he planned to get rid of soon enough. It wouldn't do for him to engage someone in combat and then have to wait a few seconds for his vision to adjust as his glasses were inevitably destroyed, fragile little things that they were. In supernatural combat, a few seconds might as well be an eternity, as he would find himself swiftly bisected or the unwilling host of a light spear or Demonic Energy construct.

Shaking his head lightly to get rid of the imagery his mind vividly constructed for him, he focused on the English lecture in front of him, right up until the bell rang, and they were dismissed for the rest of the day.

Well, technically, they still had three lectures that were supposed to be reserved for Club activities. Unfortunately, he, being who he was, had no way to get into any of the Clubs. There was also the minimum requirement of at least five students to get a club registered, a number that not even the combination of the Perverted Trio and Perverted Glasses could come up with.

Sigh. What a sad existence. Something he planned to change soon. And for that, he needed power. Power that would come from experimentation. Experimentation, he would do in his free time.

Free time that was now. It was perfect. His mother would not be worried about him being out by himself. The school did not care that they were not in any club, which was technically a mandatory activity. The only people he had to convince to look the other way were..

“Ehh! What are you saying, Motohama?”

He looked at Issei, who looked at him as if he had betrayed his entire bloodline, “No, Issei. I don’t want to get beaten by the girls at Kendo Club once again. I would prefer not to experience that ever again.”

“But!” A bald head was shoved in his vision as he looked at Matsuda, who looked at him with teary eyes, “It’s our chance! To finally get some high quality photos! Look, I finally managed to steal–Ahem, borrow my sister’s camera!” He shoved a camera in his face, as he looked at the former jock and sighed. Unlike him and Issei, Matsuda actually was a member of a club. The Photo Club, and he was quite good and passionate about it. It was too bad that his interest in Photography translated to nudity. 

He offered both of them what he hoped was a reassuring smile and said, “Thank you for the offer, but I have something to do. I will see you guys tomorrow, okay?”

“Wait a minute!” Issei jumped back and very dramatically pointed an accusing finger at him, “You did not come with us to school today, and you were early as well. Now, you are leaving again without us.” 

His eyes twitched as Matsuda joined Issei and pointed yet another finger at him, “Yes! Yes! Very suspicious. Spill! Where are you going?”

He remained silent at that, mostly out of exasperation, and partly because he was thinking of just how this was the extent of his social circle. Apparently, that little period of silence was enough for Issei’s eyes to widen in realisation as he jabbed his finger at his chest, “Could it be? You finally got a girl to talk to you?!”

Sigh. This was getting exhausting now.

“No, Issei. I haven’t talked to any girls recently. You haven’t either. All of us haven’t.”

He raised a finger at Issei, who opened his mouth to rebuke, “And no, Aika doesn’t count.”

Dusting his bag that he’d kept on the ground when both of them had accosted him, he looked at them and, after a moment of thought, replied seriously, “And I don’t think either of us will ever get a girl that is not Aiko to talk to us if we remain on our current course. Think on that, will you?”

He walked through them, ignoring the shell shocked looks both of them gave him. He imagined that it must have come as quite a shock from the same person who was supposedly known as one half of the Perverted Glasses. God, he had to share this lowly title with someone else. 

He moved on from that, his destination the forest on the other side of the Town. A place that was quite deserted and was once a popular makeout spot by the student body, right up until the school built a path to the hill right behind the school grounds, giving the students easy access to a makeout spot. The school was so generous like that. It wouldn’t at all be related to potential voyeur tendencies that Rias Gremory had.

As he walked, his mind went back to his power. He wondered how it worked. Did it require insane biological resources? How were they even calculated? Hell, last night, he had just adapted to soul merge and his glasses, and he had eaten his usual breakfast, all the snacks he could find in the kitchen, his lunch, and some more food he’d purchased in the cafeteria. Even with that, he still did not feel full.

There likely was a food competent to his powers. That was easy. The other thing was the process to get something recognised as something to get adapted to. He had all that and more to figure out soon, because he did not know where he was in canon, but his very first interaction with the supernatural might be coming soon.

Because even if he chose not to intervene in the whole Raynare killing Issei thing, which would be a bad thing to do, not just as a friend but as a fellow human, Raynare and the other Fallen might as well come after him because he had a Sacred Gear. He had no idea how they found out if someone had a Sacred Gear or not, but he was going to use his powers, and he supposed that without a way to adapt to that method, he could be blaring out a giant signal as well.

Look at me! I have so much more power and resistances than just a few days ago! I have a Sacred Gear. Or not? Nothing to see here. Not suspicious at all. 

And just like that, he would have Fallen Angels on his ass. Then, there was Freed Selzen. The unhinged maniac who worked on no logic. Atleast the Fallen worked on some sort of logic. They had purpose and some modicum of thought behind their actions, evil as they might be.

But Freed? Yeah, that man was a no go. He was completely willing to torture and main regular humans just because they were in contact with Devils. Otherwise innocent humans were killed by the man. Hell, he might just be in the city right now.

A fact that sent his heartbeat shooting up quite a bit, and also made him hasten his walk to the hill. Hopefully, his powers worked quite fast and were not akin to a Zenkai boost that required him to heal up at a regular speed to gain the adaptation.

Because the very existence of Freed pissed off something fierce in him, especially since the man was or could be in the near future, active in his city. The same city where his mother worked. The same city his mother traversed to reach their home quite late at night, multiple times at night.

He wasn’t going to let things up to Fate. She was a bitch and a half, anyway.

He froze at the thought, his neck on a swivel as he looked at the dense greenery on both sides, as he walked up the hill.

….

…

He’d just tempted Murphy, hadn’t he?